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U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., said she does not believe conditions should be placed on federal support for wildfires sweeping through Southern California, after President Donald Trump suggested he wanted wildfire aid to be conditional.
The district Chu represents includes Altadena and northern Pasadena, which have been impacted by the deadly Eaton Fire.
“There have never been conditions laid on disaster aid in the history of America,” Chu told Inside California Politics.
“I know that I have voted for disaster aid in red states and for blue states, she continued. “I’ve never considered whether they were Republican or Democrat. And let me say, wildfires have no political affiliations. They don’t have a political party.”
Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif. during an Eaton Fire press conference on January 9, 2025, at Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California. (Getty Images)
This comes after Trump said on Friday that two conditions must be met in California before the federal government offers disaster relief. He said he wants lawmakers to approve voter identification legislation and that water needs to be allowed to flow across the state.
“I want to see two things in Los Angeles. Voter ID, so that the people have a chance to vote, and I want to see the water be released and come down into Los Angeles and throughout the state,” Trump told reporters in North Carolina as he was touring hurricane recovery efforts in that state. “Those are the two things. After that, I will be the greatest president that California has ever seen.”
Trump visited Los Angeles later on Friday to view damage from the wildfires and meet with local officials and residents.
US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump tour a fire-affected area in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, on January 24, 2025. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Chu said she wants Trump to tell the working-class victims of her district that they would only see aid to address the devastation if there are conditions.
“I want him to see how these everyday Americans are being terribly devastated and also I want him to hear from their voices,” Chu said. “I want him to look, in fact, in the victim’s eyes and say that he wouldn’t provide aid unless there were conditions.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, responded to Trump’s comments about conditional aid. The governor’s office said several other states — including some won by Trump — do not generally require identification at the voting polls and that California residents must provide identification when they register to vote. Newsom’s office also said the state pumps as much water as it could under policies from Trump’s first-term.
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A view of homes destroyed by the Eaton Fire on January 9, 2025, in Altadena, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
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“Conditioning aid for American citizens is wrong,” Newsom’s office said on X.
Republicans in Congress have suggested tying wildfire aid to a debt ceiling increase or changes to California’s fire-mitigation policies, but Democrats have argued against placing conditions on federal assistance to Southern California.
